By Olivia Davies As an avid video game player, with hundreds of items on my wishlist and a backlog I dare not look at, I try to sample and play every genre. Of course, as a result I’ve found ones I love, ones I think are meh, and others I wouldn’t touch with a long stick. And when I think of deckbuilders, especially roguelike deckbuilders, I inch towards the meh category mostly because I’m more of a narrative game player. But, a strong art direction is normally enough to get me interested – that’s probably the most ‘my brain goes whir’ thing I’ve ever said but oh well shoot me. But like all good fables, I’ve now learnt to not trust the cutesy whimsical art style, as The Royal Writ is a game that likes to watch you suffer and place you in countless scenarios where you’ll stare at your screen in pure despair.
A Grand Adventure
Like most card games, the story isn’t really the focal point of your experience, you just want to get straight to strategizing and getting your cards on the board. But, I really appreciate how much love and humour is imbued into The Royal Writ through its storytelling. The main story is split into two Acts, both with very different vibes. Act 1 sees King Mikolt II trying to tame his kingdom’s troubles through sending letters of summons to the troublemakers that are terrorising the land. In response it seems like these letters are being ripped up so it’s time for the King and his royal army to descend upon them with all their might.
After the king’s jaunt of vanquishing and conquering he finds himself being overthrown by the council that has been guiding his hand the entire time. So it’s then up to him and the dregs of his followers to build their strength back up and reclaim the title of ruler. This is the segway into Act 2 of the campaign, which provides a very different playstyle, difficulty, and tone to Act 1. For one the difficulty ramps up tremendously with harsher terrain debuffs and a bullet system where for every turn that goes by, a bullet with a significant debuff can knock down your enemy. But where the storytelling really shines is in the difference between the cards you can get in each act.
Units in Act 1 are frivolous jesters and royal tasters found in the King’s court that offer high modifiers and base power, whilst Act 2 sees the player employ more dangerous allies that could either win the battle or blow it up in your face with gacha like abilities that rely on chance and sacrificing a few bodies. The comfort and frivolity of Act 1 vs the danger and desperation of Act 2 is seen in every detail of the game, which for a card game makes a world of difference for someone who doesn’t play them and makes the world feel so alive.
Cards Cards Cards
From the start, I realised The Royal Writ was quite different in how it executes its rounds of cards. Usually when you finish a match, your deck is unscathed and goes back into your hand but in this game, each turn means you’re a step closer to death so losing cards is standard. When you place your cards on the board and press attack, your cards will then deal damage but then advance forward to the next space, with each vertical and horizontal row presenting unique challenges like special terrain or column modifiers. However if you can’t end the game within 4 or so turns, your army will run into what i like to call, the death pit, where enemy reinforcements automatically kill your card. This effectively places a turn limit on your games which adds a nice pressure to getting those high damage numbers.
In order to score those high numbers, you’ll need to understand that cards are split into two major categories, those with base power and those with modifiers, blue and red respectively. You’ll need to mix and match these cards in order to get high enough numbers that will take down an enemies health points. And boy do enemy health bars dramatically increase as you progress through the game. You’ll start off needing to hit around 70-200 points of damage but those numbers can easily reach up to 10s of thousands later on, meaning you’ll need to quickly find the best combo that will wrack up points, whilst making sure your cards run into certain doom.
You’ll be able to get around those challenges through different ways like feeding your units ability cards, promoting them, or modifying your tactician board. Before every boss you’ll get a tactician space where you can increase each row’s modifiers, deck hand, and place bridges that boost your unit’s powers. There is plenty of customisation and strategy to be had in this game with plenty of different cards to trial and test so achieving those high numbers is always addictively fun. Mix that in with environmental challenges like a bottomless pit that could kill a card and a bog that will halve a card’s base power and every move is truly one to ponder over.. Like all good games in the genre, failing and starting a new run is exciting instead of depressing as you get to try something new and learn more about each card that will help push you on that bit further.
For some reason my best run was in the tutorial where I absolutely nuked most enemies with my ant army where one used a modifier and the rest had base power that increased every battle for every ant I had played out previously. But there’s also merchant cards that increase damage input for the price of gold, and a battalion style card which basically had 9 lives, one for every kitty squeezed onto the card. It was a joy to pore over every new card I had in hand, for both their abilities and art style.
Like all roguelikes each run plays out differently in terms of the cards you have in your hand and the events you come across on the map. You’ll begin each run with 3 cards and have ample opportunity to increase your deck hand and modify to your heart’s content. There’s the Tinkerer which allows you to grant buffs to your cards, the chance to sacrifice, which gives you high power cards for a blood price, and other fun chance based events like the Wonderwheel which can be spun for rewards, and horse racing which will allow you to promote your arsenal. All of them come with some kind of consequence if you indulge in them though, so best read the fine print before you commit to anything.
Sire, I Don’t Feel So Good
Despite all the fun I was having with The Royal Writ though, I often found that the game was a bit too unforgiving at times. Especially within its second act. I am all for challenge and I completely recognise that I am fairly rubbish at this genre but even I was cringing at how quickly my – what i thought was – solid team would just get obliterated. The Royal Writ has a kind of death pit at the end of each of its lanes which adds sufficient enough challenge, but nothing ever seems positive in terms of getting abilities and buffs, there is ALWAYS a catch.
For every ability card that grants you a buff, you’ll either flip a coin and may end up with a negative outcome, or you will just straight up just get a debuff. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of luck, but when all the ability cards in my hand were either poison or grant a unit a flying ability, I found I never wanted to use them because the negative outweighed the positive.. This is made considerably worse by the fact that status ailments inflicted on your cards are permanent unless you can find a way to cure them. If your bunny gets battered and is given the Frail status, they will have half base power for the whole game. Add that to the actual bullshit that is the overabundance of Act 2’s terrain debuffs and the presence of bullets which fire every turn and debuff your cards if hit, and I found myself huffing and puffing, turning off the game numerous times. But, if you do feel a bit exasperated, the game does allow you to save and pause a run at any time.
A Change of Tactics
If the base mode of The Royal Writ gets a bit repetitive for you however, the game has a range of ‘challenges’ and ‘hardships’ you can add on to your playthrough. They range from the chaotic ‘Troubador Takeove’r which makes all event spaces Wonderwheels, to my personal favourite, The Escort of King Mikolt where you will begin a run with Mikolt II as a card and the rest of the cards you get in the game are only modifiers. It’s challenges like these that bring me back for a quick run as I wasn’t limited to just chipping away at the main campaign. Hardships are exactly what it says on the tin, they’ll reduce your deck size, double the amount of bosses, or give you less gold to name a few. The more of them you conquer, the more you’ll unlock.
Animalistic Tunes
Now, let’s take a breather. Whilst the gameplay of The Royal Writ has you biting your nails in horror, the respite I got from its score by Narek Papoyan was a much needed one. I had already got the message that this was a fable, but Papoyan takes it that step further by incorporating animal noises into each map’s soundtrack, and despite how goofy that sounds, damn are they catchy. Am I a furry? No, I promise, but the barks and meows that were in time with the beat of a song almost had me yipping. Each track is so jaunty and full of personality that it’s the type of soundtrack I could never confuse with another game, it is wholly unique. Combine that with the satisfying sound design of your cards swopping in to attack and The Royal Writ is a feast for the ears.
The art style is also to die for, brimming with character and charm with its story-book aesthetic. The team takes full advantage of the colorfulness of the medieval era, mixing it with a lighthearted child-like look so they could create a playful contrast to the brutality of the game. I like to call it the Cult of the Lamb effect because there is something so gripping in watching horrors unfold in front of your fuzzy bunnies. I also loved the use of animation with some cutscenes being fully animated. The way each mini boss would enter the field made them feel memorable and unique.
The Royal Writ Review Verdict
Despite not being a master card player, I can really appreciate a card game that puts so much effort into its world building and character, even though half the time my terrible math skills fail me and I’m on the receiving end of a good arse kicking.. From its witty and sarcastic narrative tone, to a soundtrack that is delightfully rambunctious, The Royal Writ is an eye catcher for all the best reasons. However, be warned, this game is not for those looking for an easier experience with a sharp difficulty curve and a rather unforgiving Act 2. There are plenty of modes, events, and cards to have fun with though that makes The Royal Writ a game that you can play for hours on end.
You can check out The Royal Writ when it launches onto Xbox Game Pass on September 10th!
The Royal Writ Review – Cute But Deadly
+ What works
- Plenty of card customisation and strategies
- A range of fun and challening optional content
- Charming story book art direction and unique soundtrack
- Two very different campaigns
− What holds it back
- The game's challenge can be a bit too unforgiving
- A lot of abilities and systems to learn - often not explained very well
- Available on
- Xbox Series X|S · Xbox PC · Windows PC
- Developer
- Save Sloth Studios
- Publisher
- Yogscast Games
- Release date
- 10 September 0026
- Age rating
- PEGI 7
- Price
- Xbox Game Pass Free-to-Play
Aegis Malkav
Jordan Campbell
Fletcher Wilkinson